Partner, Israel’s second-biggest mobile provider, has
climbed 15 percent in New York since Oct. 14, when Scailex Corp.
said it was in talks with Saban Capital Group Inc. to sell its
Partner stake. Cellcom, the nation’s largest mobile company, has
lost 5.4 percent in the same period. Both stocks rose in New
York yesterday, as the Bloomberg Israel-US Equity Index of the
biggest Israeli companies in the U.S. dropped for a third day.

Saban Capital, owned by billionaire Haim Saban, bought
30.73 percent of Partner from Scailex in January. Partner, which
posted the steepest sales drop since its 1999 U.S. listing last
year as new operators cut prices to lure customers, will see
2014 revenue increase 0.9 percent, according to analysts’
estimates collated by Bloomberg. Cellcom’s sales are projected
to drop over the next two years.

“They’re in a challenging business environment,” Zach Herzog, head of international sales at Psagot Investment House
Ltd. in Tel Aviv, said by phone yesterday. “You may have to
weigh the company based on what its investor is willing to put
into it and not what they’re able to generate on their own.”

This isn’t the first time Saban has ventured into Israeli
telecommunications. Saban’s FSBR Group, together with Moshe Arkin and Apax Partners LLP, agreed to sell their stake in Bezeq
Israeli Telecommunication Corp to 012 Smile Communications Ltd.
in 2009.

‘Quite Well’

“With the experience of Saban, maybe he’d be able to
leverage Partner activities to perform quite well,” Ori Licht,
an analyst at Israel Brokerage and Investments Ltd. in Tel Aviv,
said in a phone interview yesterday. He has the equivalent of
hold on Partner and Cellcom shares.

Moshe Debby, a spokesman for Saban, declined to comment
yesterday in an e-mail.

Discount Investment Corp., owned by Israeli tycoon Nochi Dankner’s IDB Holding Corp., has a 45 percent stake in Netanya,
Israel-based Cellcom, according to a March 18 filing. IDB
Holding, struggling to meet debt payments, offered to transfer
15 percent of the company’s shares to bondholders as well as
inject 500 million shekels in cash, according to a March 12
filing to the Tel Aviv bourse.

“There’s a real difference between an owner who has money
and, by choice, enters the sector at this time to take advantage
or explore new sources of revenue,” Psagot’s Herzog said of
Saban’s stake in Partner. “On the other hand you have Cellcom,
which is owned by a holding company that has had to negotiate
its debt.”

Pricing Pressure

Cellcom and Partner were two of the three worst performers
in the Bloomberg Israel-US index last year. Both have grappled
with competition as new entrants Hot Telecommunication System
Ltd. and Golan Telecom Ltd. offer unlimited monthly wireless
packages for less than 50 shekels ($13.57). Because of pricing
pressure in the industry, Excellence Nessuah Investment House
Ltd.’s Gilad Alper says Saban will face challenges in improving
Partner’s revenues.

“I disagree that he can actually make a big difference,”
Alper, a senior analyst at Excellence Nessuah in Ramat Gan,
Israel, said in a telephone interview yesterday. He has a hold
rating on Cellcom and the equivalent of sell on Partner. “The
issues the company is facing are unsuitable for the market.”

Partner shares were unchanged at 22.6 shekels, or the
equivalent of $6.15, at the close in Tel Aviv, after rising 0.2
percent to $6.13 yesterday in New York. Cellcom jumped 3.4
percent to 31.56 shekels, or $8.59, after advancing 3.5 percent
to $8.36 in the U.S. yesterday.

Mellanox Slides

The Bloomberg Israel-US Index dropped 0.4 percent to 89.99
yesterday, decreasing a third day in the longest streak of
declines in a month. Israel’s benchmark TA-25 Index was little
changed at 1,249.37 today.

Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (MLNX) slumped 4.5 percent to $53.86,
its fifth day of losses in the U.S. Law firm Faruqi & Faruqi LLP
said it’s investigating potential securities fraud, according to
a March 18 statement. The company’s Tel Aviv stock fell 0.2
percent to 204 shekels, or $55.51, today.

CaesarStone Sdot-Yam Ltd. surged 7 percent to $25.07 in New
York, the biggest gain in the Bloomberg Israel-US gauge. Credit
Suisse Group AG raised its share-price estimate by 23 percent to
$27.